By members of the Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective

As lived experience advocates from the Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective (APDC) who are NDIS participants, we are deeply alarmed by the federal government’s current direction for the NDIS.

A $2 billion “Thriving Kids” program will move children with ‘mild’ developmental delays and autism from the NDIS into mainstream services. Health Minister Mark Butler has already signaled that psychosocial disability is “the next group to be looked at.” For our community, this is a red flag and has raised the fear that we will be a target of cost-cutting.

Is the door closing on the only system that meets our individualized needs?

The NDIS has been transformative for people living with psychosocial disability.

“ The NDIS liberated me from a mental health system that had failed and harmed me. Under the old system, I felt I had no choice or control. I was funnelled into services where I had little say in the types of support I received. The NDIS gave me the personal agency to choose the support options that truly meet my needs. Through the NDIS, I can now decide what works for me, and that empowerment has allowed me to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life”.   – Dave[1], an APDC member 

Currently, around 63,000 Australians with significant psychosocial disability are on the NDIS. The bar is very high for NDIS access for psychosocial disability with evidence required to demonstrate that extensive treatments (medications and others) have been tried, alongside proving permanence of disability and substantially reduced capacity[2]. Over 80% of people with psychosocial disability who are on the NDIS, are aged over 35[3]. 

Concerningly, it has been getting even harder for people with psychosocial disability to access the NDIS, particularly over the past year. The access approval rate is around 25%, compared to 79% average across all disability types[4]. Only 3% of newly approved participants had a psychosocial disability, between April-June 2025 – leading some advocates to express concern that the NDIS is closing its doors on psychosocial disability. This falls far below the original Productivity Commission estimates that approximately 15% of overall Scheme participants would have a psychosocial disability[5]. 

Why are individualised supports needed for people with psychosocial disability?

The NDIS is the only national system providing tailored, lifelong supports for people with psychosocial disability. Evidence shows that individualized budgets bring positive outcomes for those with psychosocial disability including, resulting in significant improvement to people’s quality of life and wellbeing [6], and international research has consistently found them to be person-centred; enabling greater choice and control; and cost-effective[7]. Individualised budgets have been shown to enable people with psychosocial and other disabilities to move out of institutional living environments[8][9] [10]

People with psychosocial disability are already over-represented in homelessness statistics, the justice system; and experience reduced life expectancy.  Tightening NDIS eligibility further could push thousands into homelessness, institutionalization, and state mental-health systems—services that many of us know too well for their coercion, systemic violence, lack of agency for service users, and inability to support daily living.

The NDIS, though imperfect, has offered lifelong alternatives: support with housing, daily living, community connection, and genuine participation. Stripping it away risks devastating human consequences, and discrimination towards psychosocial disability if this group is ‘diverted’[11].

Why Psychosocial Disability Matters

Psychosocial disability is a real disability. It is not just ‘mental illness’, and it cannot be neatly slotted into episodic categories. For many of us, the guarantee of life-long support remains essential as many of us live with chronic ongoing impairments. Misframing psychosocial disability as temporary or episodic risks redefining people out of eligibility altogether.

The language of ‘recovery’ is frequently misused[12], and misunderstood[13], including in the NDIS context[14]. Personal recovery, of a sense of self, is a subjective experience and can’t be facilitated by a  ’program’. Disability rights include psychosocial disability rights–and  are outlined in the UNCRPD. These include the “right to live independently and to be included in the community” (Article 19). A right is not contingent on ‘getting better’ or living without support, and explicitly includes the right to access the “assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation”.[15]

We live with complex, enduring impacts shaped by trauma, poverty, stigma, medication side-effects, housing stress, and social exclusion. These are not challenges ‘recovery’ systems are equipped to meet.

Foundational Supports: Promise or Prevarication?

The government’s proposed ‘foundational supports’ sitting alongside an equitable NDIS, could help—but only if they are genuinely co-designed, adequately funded, and complementary to individualised supports through NDIS. Without safeguards, they risk becoming a cost-containment device, leaving people with substantial needs stranded with inadequate tokenistic alternatives.

The Lessons from Children’s Reforms

The children’s diversion scheme sets a dangerous precedent. Schools and GPs are already under-resourced to meet developmental needs. Likewise, mainstream mental-health services are not designed for psychosocial disability. If the same model is applied to adults, many will be told they are ‘not disabled enough; and redirected into inadequate services. Stigma and misunderstanding will only deepen.

What Needs to Change

We call for reforms that protect, not diminish, individualized supports for psychosocial disability. That means:

•   Language precision: Recognise psychosocial disability as enduring, not episodic.
•   Safeguards against coercion: Recovery must never be weaponised to remove supports.
•   Genuine foundational supports: Funded properly, co-designed with participants, and never a substitute for NDIS plans.
•   Funded navigation and advocacy: Support Coordination and advocacy support must be treated as a core entitlement that protects our rights.
•   Ongoing support: Support that assists people with a psychosocial disability in our day-to-day living and functioning, and which allows us to imagine a better life consistent with the overarching vision of the NDIS.
•   An end to policy segregation: Consistent with the principles of the UNCRPD, people with a psychosocial disability must have the same rights as all other disabled people.
•   Cultural safety: Governance shaped by lived experience across First Nations, CALD, LGBTQI+, cross-disability, and regional communities.

The Integrity of the NDIS Is at Stake

The NDIS was founded on human rights: to give people with disability the supports they need to participate fully in society. For those of us with psychosocial disability, it is the only system that recognises and funds our needs in a way that supports dignity and agency.

Financial sustainability cannot be achieved by redefining people out of existence. The cost of exclusion will not just be economic—it will be measured in human lives.

We urge the government: act with care. Listen to participants. Ground reform in lived experience. The future of individualised psychosocial supports, and the integrity of the NDIS itself, depends on it.

About us — The Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective

The Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective are an independent collective of NDIS psychosocial participants stepping up to engage in systemic advocacy, utilising our voices and experiences to protect our rights as disabled people. We are tired of others speaking for us, of being misrepresented and of having our needs falsely portrayed.
 We seek to work with the broader disabled community, disability advocacy organisations, governments and the NDIA to ensure a fair and equitable NDIS for people with a disability.

To find out more about the Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective and the systemic advocacy we engage in with regards to the NDIS please visit our website.

References:

[1] Deidentified, not his real name

[2] Applying to the NDIS for people with psychosocial disability | NDIS

[3] Quarterly Reports | NDIS

[4] Supplement E National:  Table E.5 Assessment of access per quarter by primary disability group – National Quarterly Reports | NDIS

[5] Inquiry report – Disability Care and Support – Productivity Commission

[6] NHS England » Personal health budgets for mental health

[7] Benefits and challenges of a personal budget for people with mental health conditions or intellectual disability: A systematic review – PMC

[8] Personal budgets and the pedagogical project of care institutions in Flanders: European Journal of Social Work: Vol 25, No 4

[9] Boland, L. (2018) Transitioning from homelessness into a sustained tenancy: What enables successful tenancy sustainment? (The Moving on Project) Unpublished Thesis p.41, Plymouth University: Plymouth.  158371292.pdf (core.ac.uk)).

[10] O’Donovan, M-A., Demetriou, E., Whittle, E., Duke, Z., Aitken, T., & Guastella, A. (2021). Home and Living Options for People with Disabilities: A systematic review and environmental scan of strategies to support transition from group homes and congregate care, and those which prevent movement to congregate settings. Sydney: Centre for Disability Studies/The University of Sydney. Home and living options for people with disabilities (apo.org.au)

[11] As NDIS overhaul nears, participants with psychosocial disability fear for ‘unknown 27,000’ who may miss out – ABC News

[12] Recovery: Compromise or Liberation? – Mad In America

[13] NDIS Review – Ambiguities and Our Concerns

[14] VMIAC deeply disappointedNDIS reforms have been passed

[15] Uses and abuses of recovery: implementing recovery-oriented practices in mental health systems – PMC